


the artist struggle

by Xaizar



Series: 404 series name not found [2]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Art, Gen, POV Outsider, dramatic irony is my entire sense of humour, dramatic irony!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:54:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28188018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xaizar/pseuds/Xaizar
Summary: Set between chapters four and five of "we've got eternity". Won't make sense unless you read that first.
Series: 404 series name not found [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2064930
Kudos: 9





	the artist struggle

**Author's Note:**

> Prompto missed a few pieces when they got auctioned off!
> 
> I liked this scene, and wanted to keep it, it's just way too long to go in the original fic. Would have dragged the action too much.

Clara watched four men walk into the museum, and groaned internally. She was so close to the end of her shift. Still, she couldn't blame them for trying to escape the midday heat.

The blond pulled out a camera, and she loved the enthusiasm for art, but rules were rules. She called out, “Sorry, sir. No pictures allowed in the museum.”

His head jerked up. “Oh! Sorry!” The rest of his group trails after him as he wanders up to her desk. 

She pasted on a smile. “No problem. Would you be interested in a program, or a tour guide for your visit?”

The sharp one, with glasses, plucked a map from the stack on her desk. “A guide sounds lovely.” Well, at least they’ve got manners.

Clara stood and lead them towards the main exhibition hall. “Wonderful! We’ll start here—the Lucis Caelum exhibit is our pride and joy. Contrary to the name, it barely features any royal portraits, or the like. Rather, about eight decades back, King Mors made a rather generous donation to this museum, so we named this hall for his family.”

The tallest one smirked at another of his friends, who glared at him.

“As a matter of fact, the Lucian royalty have long been strong supporters of the arts, as far back as King Rovat, who created the first known public art museum. Prior to that, art was mainly held in private collections, or by religious institutions.” Clara heaved open the heavy double doors, and stopped at the beginning of the hall.

“As you can see by the writing on the floor, this exhibit focuses on historical movements in art. It’s got a little bit of everything, right up to the modern day. Now, it’s not really practical to talk about everything, so I’ll be taking you through a few of the most important pieces, or some that are interesting for…” —pause, for intrigue— “… other reasons.”

She talked at them about prehistoric cave art, and painted pots, then the oldest canvases and paper, and new paints. Glasses and the photographer were obviously enthusiastic, cracking jokes (though one more than the other), asking questions. The buff guy at least looked… mildly interested. The last one, well… Clara wasn’t sure he was actually awake. But three out of four wasn’t bad; a lot better than her last group, at least.

“Now this is possible the most valuable piece in this museum—and actually interesting, to boot.” She dropped a wink, and the sharp one—Ignis, she’d learned— snorted, clearly familiar with the farce that was most modern art.

“Let’s start with the basics. It’s a watercolour on paper, and a beautiful example of the early impressionist period. A simple pastoral scene, featuring a man in a long coat herding sheep. Fairly undefined, rough.” She turned from the painting, and saw the blond—Parker, maybe? Paul?— looking like he was… she wasn’t sure, actually. He was covering his mouth with a hand, somewhere between mortified and overjoyed, though she couldn’t imagine why he would be any of those. 

“Now, where it gets interesting is the history of this piece—the artist, really. Like many artists, they only became popular after dying, and they didn’t sign their work, so we aren’t  _ sure _ who painted this—but it’s widely accepted that they were painted by a guy named Prompto Argentum, since they were found in his house after he was assumed dead.”

Gladiolus (who Clara was seriously considering giving her number) elbowed his blond friend, with a shit-eating grin. P-something scowls, and hit him back twice as hard, though Gladiolus didn’t seem to feel it.

“About five years after the paintings were found, many of the pieces had made their way into display, including at that first public museum I mentioned. And then, one night, all the pieces just… disappeared.”

Ignis’ eyebrows rose.

“No one’s sure where they went. The paintings weren’t very famous before this, but it was an incredible theft, to have happened  _ literally _ overnight, and there were extended searches and rewards posted. But none of the missing works have ever been found. We know what some of them look like—a few had copies made, others were described in catalogs, but the real thing? Poof. Gone. All but three works: this one, which we keep under immense security; a collection of sketches, held by a museum in Tenebrae; and another painting, depicting a chocobo mother and chicks, owned by Iedolas Aldercapt himself.”

“Crazy,” Gladiolus said. “Hey, Prom, you related?”

Prom(?) came back to Eos, and laughed. “Doubt it. Totally telling people I am, though.”

The five of them moved on. The emo boy woke only to crack a dick joke at one of the abstract pieces. The four men left, one with Clara’s number.

The next day, Clara clocked in and found a crime scene. The Argentum painting had been stolen.

**Author's Note:**

> mona lisa esque! just, without the recovery part.  
> ardyn definitely... legally acquired... the chocobo painting when he "kidnapped" prompto to gralea  
> also, in my head, ardyn and prompto were living the cottagecore dream before noctis was born.
> 
> i don't have anything against modern art. i just think that in defending modern art, some people take it way too seriously and assume it has to be good because it's abstract and sells for a lot, in turn raising its price even more


End file.
